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Thursday, May 08, 2008

Summary of India Tour

Overall the tour was educative but I have to say, India is not one of the places that I would want to go back to visit. There was so much poverty and the part that was perhaps the most difficult to deal with is the caste system – unfortunately still very entrenched into the consciousness of almost everyone there.I saw some things that made me want to cry and after a few days in Delhi, I would gladly have returned to Canada without seeing anything else.I found almost every place I visited to be dirty and most people seemed to have lost their sense of hygiene – peeing on the side of the road or wall anytime they felt like it.Some Indians have said that all of India is not like that, and I am not disputing that but from what I saw in 24 days, I find it hard to believe that the rest of the country is not more of the same.I suppose if you are wealthy, life is good – where you are likely to employ a maid, a cook, a nanny a gardener and a driver but for most people in India (at least what was apparent to me) ARE the cooks, nannies, driver, etc. with low wages and subject to disrespectful treatment from their employers.The one thought that kept reoccurring in my mind was that I was glad that my foreparents left India to make a life for themselves in Guyana.Most of them came from the poorest part of India – Bihar – but they managed, in spite of the bad treatment as indentured labourers from the British, they managed to succeed and create the foundation for my life for which I am grateful.